—Advocates for positive will by government to address insecurity, poverty, corruption, others
Daniel Dauda, Jos
The Executive Director, Civil Liberty Organisations (CLO), Comrade Steve Aluko, has described Nigeria’s 65th years of nationhood as a mixed grain.
Aluko, a human rights activist argued that Nigeria has recorded some positive steps in some areas, but regrettably, many areas are on the negative.
Speaking to Daily Champion over the weekend in Jos ahead of 1st October, Independent anniversary, Comrade Aluko said at the state level, some states have performed better than others. Even the legislature and the judiciary at different times gave positive results, but unfortunately, in most recent times, the reverse is the case.
“In terms of institutional structure or strengthening of institutions, unfortunately, we are weak. Most of the institutions have not become institutions of the state.
Many of them are so weak that they cannot adequately perform the essential needs, the essential precedents on which they were set up.
This is the legislature, this is the judiciary, and different MDAs have not really met up to the challenges of the people.
“The challenge of insecurity is not beyond us. The government at different levels needs to wield the positive will to do the right thing at the right time.
Right profiling of criminal elements and dealing with them most appropriately is very, very important. State policing is key.
We must also have community policing. We must also have functional local government. Local government autonomy is key so that it will help in complementing one another.
Secondly, intelligence gathering, intelligence analysis, and right deployment are very, very important.
“We must also have a reward and sanctioning framework—reward for those that have performed excellently and sanction for those that, one way or the other, compromise the process.
We must also improve in terms of the logistics we give our security agents to fight the war. In whatever criminal shield we are facing, we must improve technology.
We must deploy technology, and where we need to ask for external support, we must not shy away as a nation.
We must also protect our borders. We must also have a system in place to root out every internal criminal so that preventive measures would be the focus rather than reactionary and remedial steps that have never helped.
“On corruption, we must expedite action and strengthen the EFCC and ICPC to the intent and purpose that they will be pro-people and owned by the people.
We must also educate the people, mobilize them, and constructively engage them to identify areas of corruption and prevent it.
In fact, the whistleblower mechanism must be enhanced and strengthened, and whistleblowers must be adequately protected under the law.
We need to get to this so that corruption is prevented rather than merely reacted to.
“On bad governance, it is very important that the process of recruitment be made more pro-people, more accountable to the people, and more responsive to the people, so that the people will make the very best choice, hold leaders accountable, and on that basis demand good governance.
And where any government or anybody is promoting bad policies that encourage bad governance, we must have an electoral system that is justiciable enough to the intent and purpose that the vote of the people will count at all times.
So that when they endorse good, it will not turn to evil, and when they mistakenly endorse evil, they should be in a position to sanction it, either by recall process or by sponsoring a process where they can also impeach the executive.
“Beyond this, it is also very important that the tracking system of how governance is performing must be well spelt out.
The marginalized groups must be brought on board so that they can maximize their potential. The electoral system must be reformed to accommodate all and to promote accountability.
The electoral umpire must be seen as sustainable. It must be stable enough to give the people exactly what they want.
Elections should not be midwifed on the basis of technicality or insubstantiality that is not substance.
“On unemployment, it is very, very important that God has blessed us with minerals, human resources, and material resources which, if rightly deployed and well financed, will create an enabling environment for more people to be employed.
Secondly, the energy sector needs to be worked upon so that people have energy to power whatever industry they want to bring up.
The interest must be on small-scale industry. The interest must be on mechanized farming. The interest must be on adding value to our agricultural resources.
“Food security is key so that from there, people can have a sustainable mind to think and a sustainable mind to reflect.
Economically, the country must also run economic policies that do not overtax the people, where people have something to leverage on, save on, and reinvest.
It is very, very important. The energy sector is key to having full employment in this country”, he concluded.
